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Monday, August 10, 2015

New Monster Double-shot: Abyssal "Vermin"

In yesterday's post, I wrote about my take on the demons and the demon lords of the Abyss. Today, my new monster features takes a look at what I'll refer to affectionately as "abyssal vermin." The concept of demon larvae and demon locusts aren't necessarily new ones, and I'm mainly looking at adapting them for BX/LL with my eye on a future "planes" book.

ABYSSAL LARVA

DESCRIPTION
Those men, who in their mortal life, were particularly sinful, selfish, and evil, sink to the lower planes after death and are incarnated as abyssal larvae—the fetal forms from which many demons (particularly quasits and imps) are “grown.” Abyssal larvae appear as puffy, bloated human-headed maggots of a pale and sickly whitish-yellow color.

The acids used to digest food are always present in the fangedmouth of an abyssal larva. Therefore, the bite of one of these creatures deals 2 points of acid damage in addition to the bite itself (which does 1d4 points of damage).

The mind of an abyssal larva is particularly warped, providing it protection from all mind-affecting abilities (e.g., charm, fear, illusions, etc.).

DESCRIPTION
Those abyssal larva that mature, but are not chosen by higher demons to be bred as a particular race of demon, mature naturally into abyssal locusts. The larval coloration becomes replaced by a variety of deeper, jewel-like tones (ranging from sulphur yellow to putrid jade green to blood purple). Additionally, the mind of the larva degrades, causing the chaos of its mind to be calmed, thereby eliminating any sort of immunity to mind-affecting abilities.

The forelimbs of an abyssal locust are razor sharp, doing 1d4 each. Furthermore, if all 4 forelimbs attack a single target successfully, the abyssal locust may choose to pick up any victim of human size or smaller and carry the victim away at a speed of 2/3 normal for anything dwarf-sized or smaller, and 1/3 normal for any victim larger than a dwarf. This makes abyssal locusts quite desirable as aerial support to other demons.